1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image processing such as reduction of image data. More particularly, the present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method in which a loss of image data of a pixel to be removed is minimized by reflecting a pixel value of the pixel to be removed into a pixel value of an adjacent pixel that is not to be removed, thereby minimizing distortion of a reduced image.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 1A and 1B are reference diagrams for explaining a conventional image processing method. More specifically, FIG. 1A illustrates an original image 110, and FIG. 1B illustrates a reduced image 130 created by reducing the original image 110 of FIG. 1A to 75%.
Image reduction is performed by removing some pixels of the original image 110, for example, pixels included in columns 120 and 122. If the original image 110 is to be reduced to 75%, 25% of the pixels of the original image 110 should be removed.
When pixels are removed, some pixels become adjacent to each other 140 due to removal of intermediate pixels, and such adjacent pixels may be visually highlighted in the reduced image 130. In other words, since a portion of image data of the original image 110 is removed by removal of some pixels, pixels adjacent to the removed pixels may inadvertently become adjacent to each other 140. Thus, when an image is reduced using the conventional image processing method, a visually unpleasant portion is generated in a reduced image due to pixels that inadvertently become adjacent to each other due to the removal of some pixels. This problem is exacerbated as pixel values of the newly adjacent pixels approach 0.
Moreover, image reduction according to conventional image processing methods may result in a distorted, reduced image due to image data loss caused by removal of some pixels. This problem becomes serious as the reduction percentage approaches 100%.